Baby playlist

Way incomplete; writing preempted by baby.

"Ripple" (from American Beauty) This was a sing-along at Hilary's little sister's Quaker high school graduation. I was shocked that so many people knew the words, and still am. It's not just that they're nonsense—some nonsense is learnable—some basic deep-language glue is missing, and even after dozens of spins I can't guess what word might occur next. Amazing melody, though, and astonishing synergies in the arrangement. Happy to lay down some neural pathways with this one.

"Vermont/Tokyo Counterpoint" (Steve Reich composition for MIDI marimba = reading rainbows) Seized by the thought that I might perish on the fifteen-hour drive from my parents' house back to Pittsburgh, I made a tape of this piece for my brothers. I had heard it only once or twice, but felt it was kind of a map of me, and was I feeling emotional about possibly dying on the highway. Listening now through baby ears, I am impressed by how light and fun this music is. In general, Reich is on our autism-watch blacklist, but this piece is unencumbered by rule-mindedness; it changes not according to a formula of permutation, but in order to follow its joy.

"Ocean Bowls" (Karma Moffett; a recording of crashing waves, accompanied by assorted notes played on Tibetan bowls, a geographical non-sequitur whose incoherence and ahistoricity are, I guess, par for the course) Let me begin by saying that new-age music scares the willies out of me; what it does to the brain is manipulative and drug-like and all the more insidious for the way that it shoves aside whatever's musical about music and attempts to act directly on the brain. I had some credit at the yoga store and wanted to get something like the waves track on Hilary's guided-meditation CD. Relaxing, but maybe not in a good way.

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (performed by Keith Jarrett on harpsichord) It cannot be said of Keith Jarrett that "he makes it sound easy." (Only the clavier is well-tempered.) Which of these pieces had I loved years ago? I found this music extremely anxiety-producing and shut it off. However, an LP of Bach's Oboe Concertos that was a pre-natal favorite still gets lots of play. The double-reed family poses a formidable challenge to my many vows not to overparent.

"Jive Talkin'" (Bee Gees) This song was formerly known to me only as scary drug music from a Paper Rad DVD, so I was shocked to hear it on the radio the other night (it's the occasional payoff like this that keeps me hooked on Rock Radio Roulette). "Jive Talkin'" is pretty amazing as a Stevie Wonder forgery; I think the beat is a direct lift from "Superstition." Although thoroughly intoxicating for me, Tessa was unimpressed; babies seem to have a built-in bullshit detector. I owe the Brothers Gibb 99¢.